Gulf boats having trouble finding any oil: US official
Wed Jul 21, 2010
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Some 750 boats drafted in to scoop up oil from the Gulf of Mexico are having "trouble" finding any crude in the sea, a top US official said Wednesday, almost a week after a busted well was capped.
"We are starting to have trouble finding oil," US pointman [sic] Admiral Thad Allen, who is in charge of handling the government’s response, told reporters.
The boats, which have been drafted in to skim oil off the surface of the Gulf, are "really having to search for the oil in some cases" around the area of the capped well, he added.
According to official US government figures, more than 270,000 barrels of oil (11.3 million gallons) have been burned in controlled operations since the start of the spill in April.
That is more than all the crude that spilled into the seas off Alaska in the Exxon Valdez disaster in 1989…
Allen said some of the boats used in the skimming operations were being brought ashore for repairs, as attention turned more towards cleaning up the oil that has already washed ashore along five Gulf coasts…
Have you noticed that the estimates of how much oil has been spilled range between 94 and 184 million gallons? Isn’t that quite a wide spread?
Meanwhile, we have this surprising effort at putting the BP spill into perspective – even at the high end of the estimates, from CNBC:
What Does 184 Million Gallons of Oil Look Like?
If The Gulf Was A Football Stadium…
If the Gulf of Mexico – the 7th largest body of water in the world, containing approximately 660 quadrillion gallons of water (that’s 660 with 15 zeros) – was represented by Cowboys Stadium in Dallas – the largest domed stadium in the world – how would the spill stack up?
In this example, the amount of oil spilled – if the Gulf of Mexico was the size of Cowboys Stadium – would be about the size of a 24 ounce can of beer.
Cowboys stadium has an internal volume of approximately 104 million cubic feet, compared to the just over 50 cubic inches of volume in a 24-ounce can.
Just like the can, the spilled oil represents only .00000002788% of the liquid volume present in the Gulf of Mexico, although as the oil is dispersed, the amount of water affected becomes substantially greater.
No wonder it is hard to find.
http://sweetness-light.com/archive/gulf-boats-having-trouble-finding-any-oil
Wed Jul 21, 2010
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Some 750 boats drafted in to scoop up oil from the Gulf of Mexico are having "trouble" finding any crude in the sea, a top US official said Wednesday, almost a week after a busted well was capped.
"We are starting to have trouble finding oil," US pointman [sic] Admiral Thad Allen, who is in charge of handling the government’s response, told reporters.
The boats, which have been drafted in to skim oil off the surface of the Gulf, are "really having to search for the oil in some cases" around the area of the capped well, he added.
According to official US government figures, more than 270,000 barrels of oil (11.3 million gallons) have been burned in controlled operations since the start of the spill in April.
That is more than all the crude that spilled into the seas off Alaska in the Exxon Valdez disaster in 1989…
Allen said some of the boats used in the skimming operations were being brought ashore for repairs, as attention turned more towards cleaning up the oil that has already washed ashore along five Gulf coasts…
Have you noticed that the estimates of how much oil has been spilled range between 94 and 184 million gallons? Isn’t that quite a wide spread?
Meanwhile, we have this surprising effort at putting the BP spill into perspective – even at the high end of the estimates, from CNBC:
What Does 184 Million Gallons of Oil Look Like?
If The Gulf Was A Football Stadium…
If the Gulf of Mexico – the 7th largest body of water in the world, containing approximately 660 quadrillion gallons of water (that’s 660 with 15 zeros) – was represented by Cowboys Stadium in Dallas – the largest domed stadium in the world – how would the spill stack up?
In this example, the amount of oil spilled – if the Gulf of Mexico was the size of Cowboys Stadium – would be about the size of a 24 ounce can of beer.
Cowboys stadium has an internal volume of approximately 104 million cubic feet, compared to the just over 50 cubic inches of volume in a 24-ounce can.
Just like the can, the spilled oil represents only .00000002788% of the liquid volume present in the Gulf of Mexico, although as the oil is dispersed, the amount of water affected becomes substantially greater.
No wonder it is hard to find.
http://sweetness-light.com/archive/gulf-boats-having-trouble-finding-any-oil